Climb Your Mountain Backwards

Innovation requires reverse thinking. This is opposite to the way we normally think. We most often use deductive thinking, starting from the current state and moving forward. We look at the resources presently available and think only within our means.

Innovative thinking reverses this. You start with your end-in-view goal and bring that future to the present. Working backwards helps you to find new paths outside the ruts of your experience.

Innovation thinking is not the conventional “cause-to-effect.” It is “effect-to-cause”. You imagine the mountain top you want to reach and then work backwards to find the best way.